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Waiting to Strike: Sprint Delays 4G

Sprint had originally planned to release their 4G LTE lineup of phones in the middle of next year, but it looks like plans are changing. “Sprint’s chief financial officer, Joe Euteneuer, said on a webcast that the wireless carrier will introduce its first devices on the high-speed network in the latter part of 2012. That's a little bit later than the target of mid-2012 set by Sprint a few months ago” (Eric Mack, PCWorld).

Both Verizon and AT&T already have large 4G LTE networks, while Sprint has been left to play catch-up. Sprint’s partnership with Clearwire for its 4G WiMax network has left Sprint last of the pack in terms of speed. Sprint is Clearwire’s largest investor and wholesale customer and was recently forced to provide a bailout to the company so that it wouldn’t go under. Euteneuer states, "We believe LTE is the key to our future.”

Sprint promises that they will support WiMax devices until 2015 at which time they hope to fully implement LTE devices across the network. Sprint states that they’ll still be sticking with Clearwire which is currently adding LTE to its network. All of this is great but, “by the time that future arrives, Sprint will be a year or more behind the curve. By the time the "Now Network" offers its first LTE device, Verizon will likely have more than two dozen already on the market and under its belt” (Eric Mack, PCWorld). Will Sprint be able to hold its position among the top 3